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MIDDLE CLASS AND IDENTITY 5 different groups: Professionals ­ e.g. lawyers. Value educations, independence, high culture and high cultural capital. Managers ­ in private sector businesses and government officials. Identity formed in terms of consumer spending & lifestyles their income support. Likely to adopt traditional m/c identities Self-employed small business owners ­ individualistic identity ­ likely to be work centred. Finance & creative m/c ­ those in finance and media. Young, well-off & high levels of consumer spending. Elements of both high/pop culture. Very individualistic. Concerned with earning and consuming to form & show affluent identity Low m/c `white collar' workers ­ routine, non-manual work ­ shared collective identity expressed through trade unions.…read more

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MIDDLE CLASS CULTURE Difficult to generalise a shared m/c culture as it is a wide class and is expanding rapidly. Although certain norms and values they share are: - commitment to education and recognition of its importance for career success - knowing the importance of individual effort, personal ambition, self-help for success in life -sense of individual and family self interest - concern with future orientation and deferred gratification - greater respect for high culture than popular - concern with health…read more

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TRADITIONAL WORKING CLASS Declined in the last century as factories closed down. Culture features: - close-knit community (looked out for each other) - Men=breadwinners females=housewives - hard manual work gave men sense of masculinity and was their main source of identity - job and money more significant than education - strong commitment to old labour party - view of society based on struggle between classes - enjoyment & participation in popular culture - swearing…read more

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3 ATTITUDES OF TRADITIONAL WORKING CLASS Immediate gratification ­ enjoying pleasures today rather than putting them off Present-time orientation ­ focus on present rather than future Sense of fatalism- acceptance of the situation they found themselves in as they did not see hope of improvement in their lives.…read more